Comicsgirl

Tick: The Complete Edlund Buy at tfaw.com

The Tick was my first indie comic.

Back in the early ’90s, I had a couple of letters published in a couple of issues of a title I will not name, and this being the era when they would actually include your home address (it was before the Internet reached saturation, OK?), some people wrote me back. One became a very good friend. And he, among other things, sent me The Tick Omnibus and a few issues (I think I had at least through issue #9, if not through issue #12).

All of this was before the cartoon, before the live-action TV show, before creator Ben Edlund was writing and producing alongside Joss Whedon (all of which I’ll get to in a bit).

Edlund’s broad parody of superheroes, following an insane asylum escapee in a blue suit calling himself the Tick, still works pretty well. The Clark Oppenheimer bits in the earlier issues are a little obvious (who hasn’t made fun of Superman’s secret identity? Before or since?) but The Tick’s utter cluelessness is still fun.

Some of the references are a little dated — Oedipus serving as a stand-in for Frank Miller-era Elektra, the obsession with ninjas — but it’s still self-consciously delightful (and probably no more dated than Watchmen is now and people still love that). This was what comics were like in the 1980s and early ’90s. There was a lot to laugh at.

I was honestly surprised to see how well-paced this was. It’s not a gag-a-minute but it actually does tell a story (what it is, of course) and The Tick is fun to watch. Oedipus, even as a broad parody, is a likable heroine, and the ninjas are so goofy that they’re not much of a threat. The final issue in this volume, “Villians, Inc.” where superheroes hire bad guys to fight to create a reputation for themselves, does point to the preposterous nature of most comics and lets Edlund play with some bigger ideas.

It may not necessarily be the most relevant comic now, but it still works. It’s still fun. I was greatly entertained.

So back to all the other things.

Yes, in 1994, The Tick became a Saturday morning cartoon on Fox. At the time, I thought this was really cool but I don’t think it quite registered how bizarre it was to have this happen. I’d known about The Tick for a couple of years, after all, and it felt pretty much like common knowledge to me, even if it wasn’t.

In some ways, I think the cartoon worked better than the comic series. It was pretty faithful to the spirit of the series but it removed some of the darkness and just allowed the goofiness to shine through. It still had characters like Chairface Chippendale (and the Man-Eating Cow. I never got my Man-Eating Cow action figure, though, and I am still sad about that) but took away characters like the Chainsaw Vigilante, who always felt a little out of place to me. It gave us such villains like The Evil Midnight Bomber and awesome Galactus parody Omnipotus. The Tick cartoon was good stuff.

Here’s the opening:

The Tick live-action series started in November 2001 and ran for 8 episodes. People didn’t watch it because I don’t think too many people were in the mood to laugh then. I was one of the 10 people who liked it. Patrick Warburton was born to be The Tick and I liked that the series focused more on the mundane issues of every day life than the whole fighting crime aspect (because, after all, part of the point of The Tick was that none of the characters was really that good at being a superhero). It’s available on DVD or you can watch the entire series on Hulu.

This is my favorite episode, mostly because of the always-awesome Ron Perlman, but because of the hilarious gracefulness they handle the innuendo of superheroes and their sidekicks:

Like I mentioned, Ben Edlund went on to produce a few episodes of Firefly (and wrote one of my favorite episodes of the series, “Jaynestown”). He also co-wrote and directed the “Smile Time” episode of “Angel,” where our title character turns into a puppet. Sadly, neither are online. But I love that Edlund was able to take his sense of humor and translate it into these shows. He’s also worked on some episodes of The Venture Bros., which is highly appropriate.

I suppose none of that has much to do with The Tick as a comic, though, but I’ve loved following Edlund as a creator over the years. I still enjoy The Tick in all of its incarnations, sure, but I think it’s cool the diversity of projects Edlund is doing now.

Fablewood Anthology Buy at Amazon

Released last year by Ape Entertainment, Fablewood Anthology is obviously drawing on the popularity of the Flight volumes. While the two projects share a lot in common — up-and-coming creators telling fantastic tales — Fablewood Anthology is much more slight and much more uneven.

Opening with Flight alumnus JP Ahonen‘s wistful story “Solace,” Fablewood does start out strong. After that, though, the subsequent tales swing up and down, from the disappointingly undeveloped “A Vicious Cirlce” by J.J. Nass and Eleanor Cooper to the stunningly beautiful “Under the Midnight Sun” by Dusty Neal and Chris Studabaker.

When the stories here deviate from the typical sword-and-sorcery fantasy, like Sarah Mensinga‘s wordless “Fish” rendered in soft pen and ink and watercolors, they do better. Instead, too many of these stories just feel like the beginnings of ideas, like Daniel Lafrance‘s “Unworthy.” I was left wanting to know what our nameless main character was doing alone in the snowy mountain pass, but was instead just offered a spurt of violence and mysterious lesson. I liked Lafrance’s art — he has a heavy line and sort of dramatic, pulpy style — but I wanted more from the story.

Perhaps if there are future volumes of Fablewood, some of these characters and scenarios will be further developed. But as it is, I was left unsatisfied by a lot of what was here. I enjoyed reading this anthology and it’s worth a look, but for the most part, little here excited me. I don’t know how many of these creators I’ll seek out elsewhere.

This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, which coincides nicely with the release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine (it’s like … they planned it or something!) and is, in my mind, the very unofficial kickoff to summer.

Free Comic Book Day is always a good time and an inexpensive way to be introduced to comics you may have not otherwise picked up and there is something for every taste (and trust me, if you have any interest in a free title, just get it — I didn’t pick up Umbrella Academy and I still feel stupid about it). And anyway, who doesn’t like free stuff? There are few better things than spending a warm spring Saturday afternoon in your local comic book store.

X-Men Trilogy 3-DVD Box Set Buy at Amazon

I’m feeling a little too tired to attempt a double feature tonight. And since X-Men Origins: Wolverine is out next Friday, I figured this was as good of a time as any to re-watch the first X-Men movie.

This came out nine years ago. I find that incredible. I think a lot of comic book fans never thought it would happen, too. I don’t think I did. And I don’t think anyone thought it was going to be this good. X-Men definitely opened the door to superhero movies of quality and Bryan Singer made other “serious” directors think there was something to this whole thing.

In a bit of dream casting, we got Patrick Stewart as Professor X. We have have a knight as Oscar winners (even if one of them is in a bad wig). Of course, on the flip side, we have a couple of actors who aren’t really of note and, well, a supermodel and professional wrestler. But still, as far as the cast goes, this was pretty amazing.

After starting in an expected place — a concentration camp in Poland in 1944, the rest of the plot is probably too set-up as the X-Men assembles, but a lot of things are done right here. Wolverine’s relationship with Rogue is evocative of his relationships with characters like Kitty Pryde and Jubilee in the comic. He’s a troubled, somewhat unstable character, but he could also serve as the right sort of father-figure for Rogue. Wolverine’s sparring with Cyclops over Jean Grey is also fun stuff.

The friendship/rivalry between Professor X and Magneto is also gracefully handled. Their desires for mutants aren’t too far apart, but there are crucial differences that separate them. I like that this kept Magneto from being one-dimensionally evil. He was a villain to sympathize with.

The Senator Kelly stuff doesn’t quite work. Or at least, it doesn’t work as well as it could. Storm is also pretty useless. The effects look a little dated at this point, although still not terrible.

Nearly 10 years later, X-Men remains one of the more effective comic book superhero movies made. It’s true to the spirit of the comics and it’s still satisfying (the other two are … less so. The second one is still good. The third … well …). Watching it, I do feel excited for Wolverine. I think that’s a pretty cool thing, personally.

(Yes, I know the Amazon link is to the box set of all three, but I figured it was cheap enough. You can still find the first one and it seems to be under $10 at this point.)

Water Baby Buy at tfaw.com!

I realize it’s a little moot to review Water Baby at this point, one of the titles in the defunct Minx line from DC Comics, but it’s still worthy of a discussion.

Out of the Minx titles, I wasn’t particularly interested in Ross Campbell‘s Water Baby at first. I passed up picking up an advance copy at the MoCCA Art Festival last year. Then I started reading Campbell’s Wet Moon and I kicked myself. Campbell has an uncanny understanding of what it’s like to be a late adolescent teenage girl. I really have no idea how he’s been gifted with this knowledge, but I am in awe of it.

Water Baby follows surfer girl Brody, who has had her leg bit off by a shark. After the stunning and graphic initial sequence, the story picks up a year later when Brody’s ex-boyfriend Jake returns to her life. After some ups and downs, she drags him and her friend Louisa on a road trip to take Jake back to New York state.

The story ends a little abruptly, but I like where Campbell finishes things. Brody’s allowed to be a strong, young woman on her own. That seems like a rare thing in a lot of young adult literature.

Brody is surprisingly physical — I almost want to use the word “vulgar” here, but I think it implies the wrong things. She’s tattooed with a shaved head, bisexual (or at least, her sexuality is fluid). She doesn’t like to shower and she enjoys belching and picking her nose. Brody likes to control her physicality — even before she lost her leg to the shark — and I think that’s refreshing. She’s delightfully earthy, even if she’s sometimes off-putting. She doesn’t care much of what anyone thinks of her.

The sequences of her nightmares are amazing. Campbell renders them wordlessly and Brody sometimes morphs into a shark, or a shark morphs into a man. It’s a revealing insight to Brody, who, for all her matter-of-factness, is still haunted by her accident, but also seems to understand her own power.

I love the way Campbell draws women. He certainly has a fetishistic love for tattooed and pierced women, but his girls have curves and weight in the way real women do. He draws them in all shapes, sizes and colors, something that’s incredibly refreshing.

Water Baby is what I always wanted the Minx line to be — something that teenage girls could see themselves in. This title, along with The New York Four, shows what the line was capable of, even when I had problems with it. I’m still sad that the line wasn’t given enough of a chance to succeed.